Favorite Schools

Favorite Teams

Syracuse officials visit San Francisco to see boulevards that replaced highways

Andy Maxwell

Andrew Maxwell, shown here on North Salina Street in 2011, was one of three Syracuse officials to visit San Francisco this month to see the effect of replacing elevated highways with boulevards. Maxwell is director of the Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency.
(Ellen M. Blalock | eblalock@syracuse.com)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Three Syracuse public officials visited San Francisco this month to see the effects of replacing an elevated highway like Interstate 81 with a surface-level boulevard.

The Syracuse contingent included Andrew Maxwell, director of the Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency; Van Robinson, president of the Syracuse Common Council; and Bill Simmons, executive director of the Syracuse Housing Authority.

Because Syracuse is wrestling with what to do with the downtown Interstate 81 viaduct, the three officials were invited to San Francisco by the Congress for New Urbanism, a Chicago nonprofit that advocates replacing highways with boulevards to help restore walkable city neighborhoods.

Representatives from New Orleans, who are confronting similar decisions, also participated in the two-day visit earlier this month. The group met with urban planners, city officials and others to discuss the impacts of removing sections of highway from neighborhoods in San Francisco and Oakland.

The Congress for New Urbanism provided hotel accommodations and meals for the group. The congress also paid for Robinson's airfare. Maxwell's airline expense will be covered SOCPA, and Simmons' will be paid by the housing authority, they said.

"I argued them into flying me out,'' Robinson said. "I told them I had no budget.''

The main object of study was Octavia Boulevard, which replaced a stretch of freeway that was damaged by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. Since the boulevard was completed a decade ago, housing and economic development in the neighborhood has flourished, according to the Congress for New Urbanism.

Van Robinson

The group also visited the Embarcadero, a San Francisco waterfront area that was developed after another earthquake-damaged freeway was removed; and the Nelson Mandela Parkway in Oakland, which replaced a viaduct that collapsed in the earthquake.

Robinson, who has long advocated replacing I-81 with a boulevard, said the trip removed for him any hint of doubt about that option. He said he was impressed by the neighborhood development around Octavia Boulevard.

Maxwell and Simmons said they are not committed to any particular option in Syracuse. But they said the San Francisco trip provided a variety of helpful information about how to incorporate long-range urban planning into major transportation projects.

Bill Simmons

"To be able to see those places and experience it a little bit myself was certainly beneficial as we consider the different alternatives that we're looking at now for Route 81,'' Maxwell said. "I think it's important that we be in that learning phase right now.''

Maxwell said he has spoken to Mayor Stephanie Miner and County Executive Joanie Mahoney about his observations and will prepare a formal written report for them.

"The experiences that San Francisco has are specific to them,'' Maxwell said. "While I think there are certain things we can learn from them, the context and the details still matter. Any information would have to be colored with our own circumstances.''

The New York State Department of Transportation recently unveiled 16 options for Interstate 81 in Syracuse, which will reach the end of its useful life in 2017. The department is considering variations on four themes: a boulevard, a tunnel, a depressed highway or a replacement viaduct.

DOT Commissioner Joan McDonald said in January that a final decision could come in 18 months.